International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD)

Volume 3 Issue 5, August 2019 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470

Differential Protection of Power Transformer in Substation

Thida Win1, Hnin Nandar Maung2, Ye Min Hein3
1Department of Electrical Power Engineering, Technological University, Mandalay, Myanmar
2,3Department of Electrical Systems and Instrumentation,

2,3Myanmar Aerospace Engineering University, Meikhtila, Myanmar

How to cite this paper: Thida Win | Hnin ABSTRACT

Nandar Maung | Ye Min Hein "Differential Protection scheme required for the protection of power system components
Protection of Power Transformer in against abnormal conditions such as faults etc., and that essentially consists of
Substation" protective relaying and circuit breaker. Protective relay senses the fault and
Published in determines the location of fault. Then, protective relay sends the tripping
International command to the circuit breaker. Therefore, proper care should be taken in
Journal of Trend in designing and selecting an appropriate relay which is reliable, efficient and fast
Scientific Research in operation. The voltage transformer and current transformer continuously
and Development measure the voltage and current of an electrical system and are responsible to
(ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456- IJTSRD27995 give feedback signals to the relays to enable then to detect abnormal
6470, Volume-3 | conditions. This paper describes differential protection for power transformer,
Issue-5, August especially the rating of purposed system is 100 MVA, 230 kV/33 kV at
2019, pp.2164-2167 substation.
https://doi.org/10.31142/ijtsrd27995
KEYWORDS: differential protection, protective relay, circuit breaker, power
Copyright © 2019 by author(s) and transformer
International Journal of Trend in Scientific I. INTRODUCTION
Research and Development Journal. This Power transformer is one of the most important elements in the power system.
is an Open Access Therefore, the protection of power transformer is crucial for the continuity of
article distributed the power supply. Power transformers are very expensive and take a long time
under the terms of to manufacture and deliver. Power transformer requires a lot of infrastructure
the Creative Commons Attribution License to function. Therefore, protection system for power transformer is required.
(CC BY 4.0) The type of protection for the transformers vary depending on the application
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by and the size of transformer.
/4.0)
Transformers are protected primarily against faults and
overloads. The type of protection used to minimize the time unbalance found in between primary and secondary
of disconnection for faults within the transformer and to currents the relay will actuate and inter trip both the
reduce the risk of catastrophic failure to simplify eventual primary and secondary circuit breaker of the transformer.
repair. Any extended operation of the transformer under One transformer has primary rated current I p and
abnormal condition such as faults or overloads reduces the
life of the transformer, which means adequate protection secondary current Is . CT of ratio I /1A is installed at the
should be provided for quicker isolation of the transformer primary side and CT of ratio I /1A is also installed at the
under such conditions. However as long as a possibility of secondary side of the transformer. The secondaries of both
failure exists, protection must be provided. When internal CTs should be connected to the same current coil of a
faults occur in the transformer, immediate disconnection of differential relay in such an opposite manner that there will
the faulted transformer is necessary to avoid extensive be no resultant current in that coil in a normal working
damage and preserve power system stability and power condition of the transformer. But if any major occurs inside
quality. Therefore, the different relays are used for the transformer due to the which the normal ratio of the
transformer protection. Protective relay senses the fault and transformer distributed then the secondary current of both
sends the tripping command to the circuit breaker. transformers will not remain the same and one resultant
II. Protective System of Transformer in current will flow through the current coil of the differential
Substation relay, which will actuate the relay and inter trip both the
In this substation, 100 MVA power transformer protection primary and secondary circuit breakers. To correct phase
devices are differential relay, overcurrent relay, overvoltage shift of current because of star-delta connection of
relay, buchholz relay, earth-fault relay and circuit breaker transformer winding in the case of three-phase transformer,
(245 kV). Fault currents, CTs ratio and tap selection will be the current transformer secondaries should be connected in
calculated. Finally, differential protection system of power delta and star as shown here.
transformer will be presented.
At maximum through fault current, the spill output produced
III. Principle of Differential Protection by the small percentage unbalance may be substantial.
The differential relay actually compares between primary Therefore, differential protection of transformer should be
current and secondary current of power transformer, if any

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD27995 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 5 | July - August 2019 Page 2164
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470
provided with a proportional bias of an amount which
exceeds in effect the maximum ratio deviation.[3]

IV. Types of Differential Relay

The differential protection relay is mainly classified into
three categories. These are:
1. Current differential relay
2. Biased or percentage differential relay
3. Voltage balance differential relay

A. Current Differential Relay

A relay which senses and operates the phase difference
between the current entering into the electrical system and
the current leaving the electrical system is called a current
Figure2. Biased or Percentage Differential Relay
differential relay. An arrangement of overcurrent relay
C. Voltage Balance Differential Relay
connected to operate as a differential relay is shown in the
The current differential relay is not suitable for the
Figure 1.
protection of the feeders. For the protections of the feeders,
the voltage balance differential relays are used. In this
The dotted line shows the section which is used to be
arrangement, the two similar current transformers are
protected. The current transformer is placed at both the
connected at either end of the system element under
ends of the protection zone. The secondary of the
protection using pilot wires.[1][2]
transformers is connected in series with the help of the pilot
wire. Thereby, the current induces in the CTs flows in the
same direction. The operating coil of the relay is connected
on the secondary of the CTs. In the normal operating
condition, the magnitude of current in the secondary of the
CTs remains same. The zero current flows through the
operating coil. On the occurrence of the fault, the magnitude
of the current on the secondary of CTs becomes unequal
because of which the relay starts operating.

Figure3. Voltage Balance Differential Relay

Figure1. Current Differential Relay
B. Biased or Percentage Differential Relay
This is the most used form of differential relay. Their
arrangement is same as that of the current differential relay;
the only difference is that this system consist an additional
restraining coil connected in the pilot wires as shown in
Figure 2 and current flows in both CTs flows through it.
V. Mathematical Formulations
Differential protection is normally applied to transformers
10 MVA and above or depending upon its criticality. The
following factors affect the differential current in
transformers and are considered while applying differential
protection. These factors can result in a differential current
even under balanced power in and out conditions.
Differential protection is, as the name implies, a form of
protection that utilizes measurements to detect differences.
This is done by bounding an area by two measurements and
evaluating the difference between the measurements.
The basic principle applies as the sum of all currents flowing
into the system must equal zero according to Kirchhoff’s
current law. The difference is that in high voltage power
transformer applications, the magnetizing current becomes
too large to be neglected. Besides the magnetizing current,
several sources of bias exist. One such source is the CTs used
for measuring the currents. These are utilized due to the
practicalities of measuring currents in a high power system.
The bias from the CTs is proportional to the through current
while the CTs are operating in the linear range. The error
depends on the type of CT.

The transformer differential protection setting can be

calculated by the following equations.[4][5]
Ep
r.m.s short-circuit current, Is = (1)
Xp

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD27995 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 5 | July - August 2019 Page 2165
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470

100S I diff min = (I -1) (11)

short circuit MVA  (2) min
X%
MVAsc Differential current at maximum tap,
Fault Current, I  (3) I  (1- I max ) (12)
f 3  kV diff max
Transformer full load current, I n = MVA 3  rated kV (4) I av  I max
Tap changer error  (13)
Ip Iav
Current setting at primary  (5) MVA
CT ratio at primary I
base primary 
(14)
Ip 3  kV
primary
Current setting at secondary  (6)
CT ratio at secondary
MVA
I
base secondary 
2 (15)
Vaverage (7) 3  kV
1 V ) sec ondary
(V max: tapposition CT ratio primary
min: tapposition Matching actor for primary  (16)
I base primary
Current at V ,
maximumtap position
Matching factor for secondary  CT ratio secondary (17)
MVA
I max  (8) I
base secondary
3V
max tap position
VI. Calculation Result Data of Differential Current
V , Setting
Current at
minimumtap position The Kirchoff’s Current Law is the main concept of this
MVA protection, when one node the summation of currents
I  (9) flowing in and out will be zero. The current setting can be
min 3V
min tap position calculated by using the following conditions.
1. Minimum present load condition
Current at V , 2. Maximum present load condition
averagetap position
3. Rated current carrying capacity of ACSR 795 MCM
MVA 4. Primary rated current condition
I av  (10)
3V 5. Fault condition
average tap position 6. Rated capacity of twin bundle ACSR 795 MCM

Differential current at minimum tap,

The calculation result data of differential current setting is shown in Table 1.

Table1. Result Data of Differential Current Setting
Condition Base Current (A) Matching Factor Differential Current Setting (pu)
Primary Secondary Primary Secondary Primary Secondary
1 251.02 1749.55 0.1992 0.2286 0.37 0.37
2 251.02 1749.55 0.1992 0.2286 0.57 0.57
3 251.02 1749.55 0.1992 0.2286 0.89 0.89
4 251.02 1749.55 0.1992 0.2286 3.58 3.58
5 251.02 1749.55 0.1992 0.2286 5.7 5.7
6 251.02 1749.55 0.1992 0.2286 6.2 6.2

The calculation results are between 0.37 pu and 6.2pu. In existing data from the substation, 0.2 pu is set up minimum current
setting and 7 pu is set up maximum current setting.

Table2. Comparison of Calculation Result and Data Used in the Substation

Result Data of Calculation
Feeder Data from Substation
Rated Differential Rated Differential
Current CT ratios Current Current CT ratios Current
(A) Setting (A) Setting
X’mer primary side 251.02 250-500/5 0.2 - 7 251.02 250-500/5 0.37-6.2
X’mer secondary side 1749.5 1000-2000/5 0.2 - 7 1749.55 1000-2000/5 0.37-6.2

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD27995 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 5 | July - August 2019 Page 2166
 International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) @ www.ijtsrd.com eISSN: 2456-6470

Feeder 1 300.05 200-400/5 - 300.5 200-400/5 -

Feeder 2 227.09 200-400/5 - 227.09 200-400/5 -
Feeder 3 343.79 200-400/5 - 343.79 200-400/5 -
Feeder 4 296.19 200-400/5 - 296.19 200-400/5 -

VII. Conclusion VIII. References

Nowadays, electrical energy demand is increasing and power
shortages are more increased because of various faults. In
order to minimize these problems, the better power system
protection schemes are needed. The less time of sensing
faults and clearing faults can build the more power system
stability. The assessing of time dial setting is very important
because the operating time of the relay is directly
proportional to the time dial setting. The circuit breaker can
clear the fault quickly if the relay sends the fault information
with the fastest speed to breaker. It can cause less damage to
electrical equipments.
[1] QaziArsalan Hamid, “Differential Protection Scheme
basic and 5 MVA Transformer Protection Calculation”,
2018.
[2] Robert Morkel, “Differential Relay”, 2017.
[3] J. Lewis Blackburn and Thomas J. Domin, “Protection
Relaying Principle and Application”, Third edition,
2016.
[4] L. G. Hewitson, Mark Brown and Ramesh Balakrishnan,
“Pratical Power System Protection”, 2004.
[5] Noelle D. Humenick, “IEEE Guide for Protection Relay
Application to Power Transformer”, 2000.

@ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD27995 | Volume – 3 | Issue – 5 | July - August 2019 Page 2167